I'm pretty sure this is a award that has been bounced around the Scandinavian countries, I recall a time when Iceland had the same honor for a few years running back when I was a kid. And this was with Icelanders working more hours (on average) with less over-all income (on average) than many other 1st world countries. And THAT was prior to the economic collapse in 2008... maybe we got less cheery after that, I don't know.